Probably the biggest ‘hidden’ pub in South Manchester, on the Longsight/Fallowfield border, deep into student territory and as far off the beaten track as a gig venue gets in these parts, Ruth at Fat Northerner had made sure that from Stockport to Salford, anticipation levels were running high. The last UK appearance from the label’s finest THE IRONWEED PROJECT before they head for a series of dates in the U.S. had all the trappings of a secret gig.
Downstairs, the pub’s tiny club offshoot buzzed with anticipation, with many more spilling out into the huge front gardens to smoke and chill on this strangely mild February Friday night.
Come showtime, at well past eleven bells, I’m astonished that DJ aside, the band itself is a mere 4-piece, with Aniff Ankola’s languid, lazy vocals deep in the mix, and the guitar sounds flowing through a complex array of pedals. Kicking off with the shape throwing, deep South half-stepper ‘Get On The Floor’, they wated no time in getting hips swaying with a genre-defying groove that ultimately proved irresistible.
It was a brilliant gig! ‘Rising Sun’ jungle-skipped to a chains-off blend of funk guitar and scraping organic bass as Ankola’s harmonica wound into the hypnotic jam, by now beginning to feed off audience energy. Impossible not to move your feet, the room began to bounce.
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KYLA BROX’S beautiful vocals boomed out from the speakers as ‘All By Myself’ bounced out on the back of another killer drum n’bass-inspired funk fuelled slice of disco-darkness. Absolutely mind-blowing, my pal was dancing as well, and he’s on crutches with a broken ankle! The twanging intro gave way to a sweeping surge of momentum that pulled the apathetic to their feet in a trance.
The bubbling railroad blues/trance of ‘Let’s Swim Like Whales’ was followed by the choppy 100mph funk of ‘Get A Little Dirty’, a tune that shunted through several psychedelic changes of tempo with wild abandon. The heat in the tiny venue rang out with cheers before I went to sit on a bench on the lawn outside, still dizzy from the heat and the sonic melting-pot I’d just heard.
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